They were uncomfortable with its marrying of extreme violence and sexually provocative imagery.

“We’re sorry that we offended people – that was truly not the intention of the trailer,” the game’s director Tore Blystad told IGN.

“Of course we understand, this has been a very big topic for us and we’ve been reading as much as we could of the articles and responses. We were surprised that it turned into such a huge topic. Something similar happened with our Sniper Challenge pre-order bonus.

“We just wanted to make something cool, it wasn’t the intention to stir up anything. It was never the intention to provoke people with it.”

Blystad also confirmed that the video IS based on a level in the game and is not, as many had presumed, a random scenario conjured to facilitate the making of the trailer.

You can see the (18-rated) trailer below, and make up your own mind about its content: